Portions of the “DirectX 11.1 Runtime” are being made available on Windows 7 Service Pack 1 via the Platform Update for Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (KB 2670838) included with the Internet Explorer 10 Release Preview for Windows 7. This includes the updated components above, but is limited to WDDM 1.1 drivers on Windows 7.

The KB 2670838 update adds the following support to Windows 7 Service Pack 1 / Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1:

The updated headers and link libraries needed to target the new components on Windows 8 and Windows 7 are in the Windows 8.0 SDK as indicated in previous posts (see Where is the DirectX SDK?). See MSDN for details on ‘mixing’ the Windows 8.0 SDK and legacy DirectX SDK if needed.

It is also important to note that the updated “Debug Runtime” components in the Windows 8. 0 SDK are required on Windows 7 once KB 2670838 is installed. The legacy DirectX SDK (June 2010) “Debug Runtime” for Direct3D 10.x and Direct3D 11.x is not compatible with Windows 8 or Windows 7 once this update is applied.

The legacy PIX for Windows tool in the DirectX SDK (June 2010) release does not support Direct3D 10.x or Direct3D 11.x applications on Windows 8, and after this update is applied it will no longer support these applications on Windows 7. Direct3D 9 application debugging continues to function. Visual Studio 2012’s Graphics Debugger supports Direct3D 11.x applications on Windows 7 and Windows 8.